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Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and/or are having a wonderful holiday season in general.
The Jazz have still been experiencing countless issues as of late (which we'll get into briefly a little bit later). Yet despite this season playing out conspicuously close to a worse-case scenario for this season injury-wise, the Jazz still somehow are managing to hold onto the 8th seed in the West.
Bad news time...
.@AlecBurks10 suffered fractured left fibula. Surgery not required, he's out indefinitely: https://t.co/TFQG3g7HgD pic.twitter.com/rt4jGCT3qx
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) December 27, 2015
Utah guard Alec Burks has suffered an ankle fracture and will likely miss a minimum of six weeks, league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) December 27, 2015
Is this the basketball gods punishing Burks for throwing down a blasphemous dunk on Leuer last week? Have mercy on our squad please! This team needs to invest in some wizards or health deities to keep this team safe from injury.
The Jazz are now out 3 of their top 7 players. The best injured player, Gobert, should be back in the next few weeks. Burks should be back right around All Star Break. Exum is doubtful but possible to return around the end of the season.
The Jazz are 4 games under .500 right now at 12-16. They are also the 8th seed in the oddly weak/battered West this year.
Since I've done this for so many years when the roles were reversed, I should be impartial and still do it now. The Jazz would currently be 13th in the East. What a bizarre season in the NBA...
The Jazz play 4 games this week, starting with one against the red hot 76ers (coming off of a win against the Suns to double their wins for the season) tonight at home at 7 PM.
The other games in probably our easiest week so far are an away game at Minnesota on Wednesday at 6 PM, Home vs. the Trailblazers this Thursday (New Year's Eve) at 7 PM, and another home game vs. the Grizzlies on Saturday at 7 PM.
This may be wishful thinking, but I think despite the myriad of injuries on this roster, the Jazz have a solid chance of going 4-0 or 3-1 this week. Let's get some wins this week, Jazz! (And for the love of all that is jazzful and holy, no more injuries!)
While I was busy watching the new Star Wars film again yesterday, our beloved Frenchman Rudy Gobert was watching one of the top movies of last year's Christmas season.
Just finished @UnbrokenFilm. Great movie... #truestorie
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) December 28, 2015
I wonder if this movie helped inspire Rudy to come back stronger than ever upon his return.
What's your top choice for inspiring sports (or even non-sports) movies? (In before the first dozen replies are all Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2)
For a bit of a pick-me-up, enjoy some more Rudy
Best plays of Rudy Gobert - 2014/2015 NBA... by alebolloch
So how many wins will this year's Jazz miss out on that the fully healthy version of this year's Jazz miss out on? A couple? A handful? Over a dozen? Let us know in the poll and the comments.
Stay strong Jazz fans, brighter times are ahead!